Tip-toeing Cats to Decoying Ducks

We are not in Kansas anymore.

This is a good thing.

Tuesday morning started out with a pinkish glow everywhere.

We packed up and got ready to pull out of the campground that we were forced to stop at to a) repair our truck (check) and b) buy new tires (check).

For 5 1/2 years, every time we get ready to pull out, we ALWAYS check our lights. I stand behind the trailer, and a little to the side so that Jim can see me in his sideview mirror, and we go through the whole routine. I give him a "thumbs up" for each test.

There were no "thumbs up" that morning.

I thought maybe Jim forgot to plug in the trailer to the truck.

That would have been too easy.

Jim checked out various things but the glaringly obvious one was those cut wires that the blow out caused the day before. Yes.

Jim put on his thinking cap, told me to search something on my laptop, and within a couple of minutes I came up with the schematics for the wiring for the lights! He studied it for a couple of minutes then climbed under the trailer and did a temporary fix so we could continue on our trip. It's a good thing that Jim is so smart - AND handy!

While I was waiting for him, I sat in the truck because it was a little nippy outside. I started to laugh because I saw tiny footprints leading across the dashboard.

The day before we had to leave the windows open all night because the battery was dead. I was worried about thieves stealing things from the truck; I didn't think about a cat waltzing through it! I got out of the truck and saw footprints across the hood; even where the cat had slipped!

I was amazed how the cat even got up on the truck. Big Blue is, well, BIG!

That step to get up into the truck is at least 18 inches off the ground; those side view mirrors are about 24 inches long!

It felt good to get back on the road again, even if it was almost noon. We passed fields of sorghum.

and cotton fields,

 

and even a town called

By now we were getting hungry and we came across a restaurant called

 

It was a small, unobtrusive looking building, you know, a hole-in-the-wall, that when we walked in, the fumes from the smoked pork just seemed to dance in the air like in those cartoons where the smell just envelops you, and permeates your every pore and you feel like you died and went to heaven. My mouth started watering before we even got to the counter.

Jim and I both had pulled pork sandwiches with french fries. Just take a look at the size of this bad boy! I couldn't even finish it!

The french fries were crunchy and salty, just how I like them! Of course, there was extra barbecue sauce at the table to make that sandwich extra juicy!

We left Starvin Marvin's fat and happy, I'll tell you!

We arrived just outside of Liberal, Kansas last night. Didn't even unhook the truck. We stayed at this campground last year. It's a little odd. It's clean and everything, but nobody lives there. There is an office building but nobody is ever there. You just drive in, pick your spot, and someone comes later to collect your money! They do give you a receipt, so it's not like just anybody comes to get money.

This morning I walked over to look at the windmill.

I was surprised that there were a couple of ducks swimming around so I went back to grab my camera. As I got closer I realized that they were only decoys!

I walked back to the truck, climbed in, laughing and said to Jim, "I am such a dork!"

His reply? "NOW WHAT?"

Wouldn't you be offended?

Like as if I'm ALWAYS a dork?

Huh!

Before we left the town of Liberal, I visited "Dorothy's House" and "Land of Oz". That will be my next post. Stay tuned.

Tidbits from Trailer Pat - Chapter Two

Today's tidbits are all about PUMPKIN!

1.  Remember my picture of this funny looking pumpkin?

According to this website, Superfreak Pumpkins, they call the pumpkins with large bumps "knuckleheads", and the pumpkins with smaller bumps "goosebumps". Isn't that cute? Their website has free template designs that you can print and use for carving your pumpkin. Next go to this great website, PCJack-o-lantern, that gives wonderful hints for carving a pumpkin.

2. Okay. So you scooped the guts out of the pumpkin. Now what. Here's what I want you to do. I want you to separate the seeds from that other nonsense. Say what? Be patient, my little chick-a-dees. It's well worth it. Let's make some pumpkin seeds!

Rinse the seeds. In a small saucepan, add the seeds to water, about two cups of water to every half cup of seeds. Add a half tablespoon of salt for every cup of water (more if you like your seeds saltier). Bring to a boil. Let simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and drain.

Spread about a tablespoon of olive oil over the bottom of a roasting pan, and add seeds, all in one layer. Bake on the top rack until the seeds begin to brown, 10-20 minutes. When browned to your satisfaction, removed from the oven and let the pan cool on a rack. Let the seeds cool all the way down before eating.

(Recipe courtesy of Mark Allen's American Kitchen Restaurant)

Enjoy!

3) Finally, here is a delicious recipe for Pumpkin Squares from my friend Marcia. No, I don't buy a real pumpkin and do whatever you have to do to cook with it; I just buy a can of Libbey's pumpkin and call it a day! These are sooo delicious, try and eat just one!

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix wet ingredients in bowl:

16 oz can pumpkin
4 eggs
1 c oil

Mix dry ingredients in another bowl.

2 c flour
1 2/3 c sugar
1 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder

Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix. Pour onto ungreased cookie sheet (with sides!). Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes. Cool

Frosting

3 oz cream cheese
2 c powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 stick of butter (1/2 cup)

Mix together till creamy. Frost. Cut into bars. Eat. Enjoy!  Yum!

You are NEVER going to believe this!

The day started out good.

Really it did.

We packed up and got ready to go. I was standing in the grass near the truck, and as Jim walked by, he accidentally kicked up a rock towards me.

I bent down and picked it up and was pleasantly surprised to see it was a heart rock!

I said, "Look, Hon, you kicked a heart rock to me!"

Jim replied, "See, I LOVE YOU. And You say I don't give you any signs!" Then he leaned over with his sweaty face and kissed me.

What'd I tell ya? Good start.




We hopped on the Interstate, and I started chatting with Jim, sharing with him all your concerns over his back. (HE DOESN'T READ MY BLOG.)

I found an exit on the left side of the road and the exit sign was indeed on the left of the sign like I said in my post here.

We drove thirty, 30, 30 miles when we heard it. 

BAM! 

I.AM.NOT.KIDDING.YOU.

Yes, folks. Blow #3, in 6 days on the road. 

Here's the deal. Two years ago we replaced all six tires at a dealer, Les Swab, on the West coast. You may recall last Spring when we left AZ we had two blowouts - one right in Washington where we bought the original tires. The dealer gave us a new tire; we just had to pay the difference in price because they no longer carried the original tire. Fine. Then about 2 weeks later, another tire blows. Same deal. We find another Les Swab dealer and they swap out the tires. Now with these tires blowing, it makes 5/6 original tires blown. Something tells me that these tires aren't right, you agree? I want Jim to replace that last tire before it blows. We already have enough damage to the trailer. That side of the trailer WAS JUST FIXED A COUPLE OF MONTHS AGO from the other blow out.

The flapping tire tread not only damaged the trailer, but also cut the electrical line for the one slide-out.

But my story doesn't end here. Oh no.

Jim and I climbed back into the truck; Jim sweating and hurting, me frustrated and near tears.

Jim lets out a sigh and turns the key to start the truck.

And.....nothing.

NOTHING!!!!

Well, not nothing, just a click, click, click, click.

Oh, no. This is NOT happening!

We have an extra battery right on the truck. Jim hooked that up but to no avail. It must be the starter or something else.

Luckily we have roadside assistance. Jim called them and we waited 1 1/2 hours for the honking big tow truck.

In the meantime, I saw a barn down the way and took a picture of it. I used the "posterize" effect. I liked how it turned out.

Also, how about some barbed wire against blue sky?

 

So, the big tow truck showed up. He towed us to a local campground. Could you imagine the sight we made - 40 ft trailer towed by 18 ft truck towed by gigantic tow truck?

The driver was very nice. He pulled us through the site, let us unhook the trailer, then he towed the truck aside. He's coming back in the morning to tow the truck to a local dealer.

Do you know what's amazing through this all? Jim's attitude. He's calm, doesn't get upset. Just takes things in stride.

Me? I cry, ask, "WHY US?" etc.

I can't help it. I'm Italian/Irish. I'm emotional.

I told Jim, "Hey. Maybe there's a reason for this. Maybe there's a casino near the campground. Maybe I'm supposed to go there and gamble and WIN BIG!"

Jim said, "Yeah, right!" And snorted!

(I stand corrected about the law regarding changing lanes if there is a disabled vehicle pulled over to the side. That only applies to emergency, police and service vehicles - not personal ones. It is just a common courtesy to move to the outer lane.)

Backaches, Blow-outs, and Bloggers! Oh My!

Hello my loverlies! It's me with a report of my road trip so far. As you can tell by the title, it's been interesting.

We pulled out of Utica, IL with Jim's back in some kind of a spasm. So bouncing around in the truck all day didn't make it feel any better. Remember we talked about the shutting down of rest areas due to lack of money? So far we've only seen one!

We made it to Iowa with no problems.

We stayed in a small campground in Keokuk. I have a friend, Kathy, who lives in that town. I haven't seen her in about five years. Actually we met when we both lived in Virginia over 23 years ago! My how time flies!

So Kathy and I went out for the evening; Jim decided to stay home and rest because his back was really  hurting him. No problem! It gave Kathy and me time to catch up on the gossip and reminisce about old times. We decided to run up to the gambling boat to donate some money! I actually came out $20 ahead. That's unusual! We came back to my place and played a mean game of "Bananagrams". Did you ever play that? It's like playing Scrabble, but you make individual crosswords. It's a lot of fun!

Wednesday morning we packed up and headed out to our next destination just outside of Kansas City, MO. We weren't too long on the road when we heard that old familiar "POW!" sound. Yep. A blow-out. Let's call this BLOW-OUT #1, shall we?

Jim and I both said some choice words like, "fiddlesticks" and "darn-it!" before jumping out of the truck. Maybe "jumping" is too strong of a word for Jim. Let's just say he moved slowly while groaning as he got out of the truck. Poor guy. But he got the tire changed pretty fast and we were on our way.

I didn't have my camera ready to take a picture of the Missouri sign. So here's one from the internet, courtesy of  members.virtualtourist.com.

I did see this one funny billboard sign. (One of my favorite songs, by the way. I just can't help but stand up and shake my booty!)

We initially planned to stay just one night at the campground, but due to the blow-out, we needed to pick up a new tire, so we booked two nights. The next day Jim found a Good Year dealer and bought a replacement tire to the tune of around $370! He debated about picking up another tire because one of the tires was looking suspicious, but opted not to because of the price.

Friday morning we felt confident with a new tire, Jim was walking somewhat erect, and we only were going a little over 200 miles. Life was good!

We got on the interstate tooling along at 55 mph (speed limit was 65-70 - but Jim wanted to conserve gas on our gas gobbler!!) We heard a weird sound. Jim asked, "What was that?"

"I don't know!" I replied, looking at the sideview  mirror, not seeing anything at first. Then, yep, I saw a tire flopping. SON OF A BISCUIT!!!

"It's a tire!" I yelled!

Jim pulled over to the side of the road. As Yogi Bera said, "It's deja vu all over again!"

Now it was the middle tire - the one that Jim thought he should replace because it was bulging. Arrgh!

You know when you see people who's car is broken down on the side of the road, and the law states that you should change lanes if at all possible? PLEASE DO SO. Let me tell you, it's quite scary when the traffic, especially trucks, are zooming by, even in the left lane, let alone in the right lane. Our trailer was rocking back and forth like you wouldn't believe.

Notice the blue arrow pointing to the small circle? It is this.

If I wasn't so tired, I'd laugh. Yeah, it's a small hole. Say what? How does the spare tire come out of there you ask? I'll tell you. You use this stupid crank.

This stupid crank that has two slots on either side. You open up that cover, stick this crank in, and hopefully connect with a small bar that fits into the slot. You can have good eye/hand coordination, but IT DOESN'T MATTER because it's pitch dark in this hole unless the sun is on that side of the trailer and at the right height in the sky to shine DIRECTLY in said hole. THIS CRANK (two thumbs pointing to me) doesn't like working with THAT CRANK. I think there could have been a much better way to lower the spare tire, like, I don't know, hydraulics? But I'm trying to be a good little wife and help my husband, who usually stands at 6'2" tall, but with this second blow-out he's bent over now at 5'8". One more blow-out and it will look like I'm traveling with one of the midgets from The Wizard of Oz. (Good thing our next stop is Liberal, KS where the Wizard of Oz Museum is located! Maybe we'll get a discount!)

But, I digress. So while I'm waiting for midget man to get the tire off, which he's having a heck of a time, I'm standing on the side of the road praying that nobody is sleeping at the wheel and will suddenly veer off the road and kill us. I'm wondering if I have the adrenaline in me to yank my 250+ lb husband by his ankles out of the way of a wayward truck barreling down on us. To get my mind of of that, I see some roadside daises to cheer me up.

I also found this stone shaped like the continent of Africa.

You know that I'm into rocks, right? I'm forever looking for heart shaped rocks or stones. As a matter of fact, this is what I found at my campsite in Keokuk.

Here's the one from Park City, KS

We saw some lovely fall colors on the road.

We arrived at the campground in Park City, KS, where, again, we initially planned to stay one night, but changed to two nights due to a tire issue.

I started setting things up on the inside, while Jim started on the outside. He sets up the satellite dish at every location.

I know what you're thinking.

You're thinking, "Seriously, do you REALLY need TV every night?"

Why, yes, yes I do.

So Jim is outside, his two hands on either side of the honking big satellite dish, praying to the satellite god to please, please, PLEASE give him a signal.

And me? I open the bathroom door and find this mess.

That is a half a roll of toilet paper, UNROLLED. That is my "library", a.k.a. magazines for browsing while sitting on the throne, tossed around like nobody's business, and the garbage can sitting precariously on it's edge. That was some wild ride we had!


But nothing was going to dampen my spirits, even though it was raining, too, because I made plans to meet up with a fellow blogger, Teresa, from The Middle Side Of Life

TERESA AND RON

We had a delightful evening and chatted up like old friends. It's nice to finally put a voice to a face! And what a caring wife Teresa is to Ron! Ron is a funny and gentle man. I'm glad we had a chance to meet.

When we came home, I gave Jim some pain medication, and we both crawled in bed at 8:00 pm and watched programs that I had stored on the DVR (since Jim never did get a satellite signal). It started to rain really hard, but I paid no mind because we were snug as a bug in a rug.

Or so I thought.

Then I thought, "What is that SOUND?"

I couldn't quite place it. It almost sounded like water was leaking into the trailer. I checked the kitchen. All was well.

I checked the shower. Nothing there.

I opened up the bathroom.

EEK! Someone, by the name of JIM, left the vent wide open, and all that hard rain? Came right in. The floor was sopping wet. That sound? Was water dripping from the vent onto the plastic garbage bag in the garbage can.

Again I said those choice words like "fiddlesticks", etc.

Today, Saturday, it is so windy that our trailer is rocking like a freakin' Disney ride, and I'm not even belted in.

We haven't been doing ANY sightseeing, being as we're too busy buying tires and all.

Plus Jim's back is behaving badly.

Sunday night we'll be around Liberal, KS. Monday night Tucumcari, NM, and Tuesday, Albuquerque, NM. I'm hoping to visit Becky, from Becky's Blog while we're in Albuquerque.

Hope you are all having a great weekend!

Flashback Friday - Groom, Texas

One of the wonderful things about traveling is stumbling upon an unplanned tourist attraction, like finding some money when you are taking a walk or realizing that there is one more donut left in the bag. That's what happened to us while traveling one year down Interstate 40 in Groom, Texas. We could spot it 20 miles away.

As we got closer, we saw signs for the large cross, and went to see what it was all about. There was a large parking area so we had no problem with our truck and trailer. We found an exhibit of the 14 stations of the cross, the huge cross, a gift shop, and a small building which held an exact replica of the Shroud of Turin, thought by many to be the burial cloth of Jesus. There was no charge to view the exhibit.


Here is the cross. It is 19 stories high (190 feet), 11 stories wide (arm span - 110 feet), and weighs 2 1/2 MILLION POUNDS! It is the Second Largest Cross in the Western Hemisphere. (The largest is in Effingham, IL, which, by the way, we've seen, also!)

The Fourteen Stations surrounded the base of the cross. 

 
This is the First Station: Jesus is condemned to death. (All the bronze statues are life size.)

 

 

Second Station: Jesus carries his cross.

Third Station: Jesus falls the first time.

Fourth Station: Jesus meets his mother, Mary.

Fifth Station: Simon helps Jesus.

Sixth Station: Veronica wipes the face of Jesus.

 

Seventh Station: Jesus falls the second time.

 

Eighth Station: Jesus comforts the women of Jerusalem.

 

Ninth Station: Jesus falls the third time.

Tenth Station: Jesus is stripped of his garments.

Eleventh Station: Jesus is nailed to the cross.

Twelfth Station: Jesus dies on the cross.

 

Thirteenth Station: Jesus is taken down from the cross:

 

Fourteenth Station: Jesus is laid in the Holy Sepulcher.

The exhibit is open 24/7, 7 days a week. In the evening all the exhibits are lit up. I bet that lighted cross is something to see in the dark of night!